Loading Cargo Aboard ATV 3 – Edoardo Amaldi
Image Credit: ESA / CNES / Arianespace / Optique Video du CSG–S. Martin 2011

The European Space Agency’s Edoardo Amaldi mission to the International Space Station is scheduled for 1000 UTC on 9 March 2012. It is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 0138 UTC on 19 March, and stay attached until the end of August, when it will detach and de-orbit with tons of garbage and burn up in the atmosphere.

This is the third mission by ESA to the ISS and will carry almost six tons of cargo:

• two tons of dry cargo
• 285 kg of water
• more than three tons of propellants

Assembled ATV 3 Spacecraft
Image Credit: ESA / CNES / Arianespace / Optique Video du CSG – J.M. Guillon